Conditional formatting in Excel allows you to highlight cells based on certain conditions. Here are the different comparison operators available:

* Equality:
* `= (Equals)`: Checks if the cell value is equal to a specific value or another cell reference.
* Inequality:
* `> (Greater Than)`: Checks if the cell value is greater than a specific value or another cell reference.
* `< (Less Than)`: Checks if the cell value is less than a specific value or another cell reference.
* `>= (Greater Than or Equal To)`: Checks if the cell value is greater than or equal to a specific value or another cell reference.
* `<= (Less Than or Equal To)`: Checks if the cell value is less than or equal to a specific value or another cell reference.
* Difference:
* `<> (Not Equal To)`: Checks if the cell value is not equal to a specific value or another cell reference.
* Text Comparison:
* These operators work similarly to numeric comparisons but are used for text strings. Excel performs a case-insensitive comparison by default.
* Logical Operators (Can be combined with comparison operators):
* `AND`: Checks if multiple conditions are true simultaneously.
* `OR`: Checks if at least one of the conditions is true.

Additional Options:

* Between: This is a shortcut for combining a greater than or equal to and a less than or equal to comparison.
* Top/Bottom Rules: These allow you to highlight cells based on their position within a sorted list (e.g., top 10% of values).
* Text Contains, Begins With, Ends With: These operators are helpful for filtering text data based on specific criteria.
* Formula Based Formatting: You can use formulas to define custom conditions for conditional formatting.